Select Local Merchants

Since 1987, Craft Productions, Inc?has been promoting handcrafted arts-and-crafts shows in the Chicago area.?Although the shows may be held indoors or out or have nearly 200 booths or only 30, they all feature the work of local artisans and craftsmen. Their wares include handmade jewelry, home decorations, apparel, art, woodwork, and bath and body items that are perfect as gifts for friends, family, or even your enemy so they'll know how good you are at gift giving.

An after-school-arts -education program for youngsters aged 4–18, CYT Chicago culminates each of its three yearly sessions with a host of musical productions. This October–December, CYT will be hosting the following classical productions throughout the area:

The Joliet Park District sprawls across more than 1,000 acres, engaging visitors with everything from sports to nature. Guests can wander through the foliaged paths of the Pilcher Park Nature Center and the organic community garden, or treat their senses to the floral colors and aromas that fill the bird-haven greenhouse. The 10,000-seat Joliet Memorial Stadium hosts high-school and college sporting events, while a dozen athletic fields fill with recreational players hitting baseballs, catching softballs, and spiking soccer balls when the referee isn't looking. During the summer, inner tubes transport patrons down Joliet Splash Station's high-speed water slides and 865-foot lazy river, and the glittery strands of Fourth of July fireworks color the skies above the stadium.

While audiences laugh it up at the rib-tickling comedians, Morty's slick performance space entertains their eyes. Eschewing the dowdy aesthetic of many comedy clubs, Morty's features sleek, modern tables and chairs and a wood-paneled bar. A full menu of tasty food, meanwhile, quells hunger while drinks and craft beers cool tongues and help keep people from spontaneously combusting.

Coconuts Comedy Club, located in Jack’s Joint since 1998, has been luring in chuckle-seekers for more than two decades with a glittering stage filled with nationally touring comedians. To keep growling stomachs from heckling comedians out of frustration, visitors can mute tummy rumbles with a full menu bursting at the seams with saucy wings, 14-inch hand-tossed pizzas, and brawny steaks.

A lot has changed in the century since the Paramount Theatre was founded, but the theater's crowd-pleasing entertainment wouldn't have been out of place in Aurora's turn-of-the-century theater scene. When the Venice-inspired art-deco venue was first built, it joined an already-bustling local tradition of vaudeville, silent films, concerts, and circus acts. Photographs dating back to 1931 guided a 1976 restoration, in which artisans completely retraced and repainted eight original murals, re-gilded the fluted columns, and patched up the sheets of every ghost. Concerts, comedy, and community events fill the theater when it's not occupied by the dazzling production values of a professional musical-theater company, which launched what the Chicago Tribune called a "thrilling debut season" in 2011.